Solution for hackerrank warmup question compare the triplets in golang. In this question we will use if-else statement and arrays in golang for the first time along with for loops that we covered earlier.

Problem Statement

The question can be found at this link. The problem statement states that we need to compare two sets of inputs and provide a result based on the comparison.
Couple of things to note here is

• We need to take six inputs, 3 on each line
• we are solving this in golang (assuming we understand basic for loops, input, output in golang, refer to my earlier posts in case you need a refresher )

Challenges

• Choose our preferred language as golang on hackerrank. The moment we do that, we get some 50-60 lines of code which are very unfamiliar to someone who is new to language.
• To solve this problem only thing we need to know is how to take input, show output, iterate over an array, use if-else statement and arrays in golang

Solution

This is the template you get on hackerrank for this problem statement.

package main

import (
    "bufio"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "os"
    "strconv"
    "strings"
)

// Complete the compareTriplets function below.
func compareTriplets(a []int32, b []int32) []int32 {


}

func main() {
    reader := bufio.NewReaderSize(os.Stdin, 16 * 1024 * 1024)

    stdout, err := os.Create(os.Getenv("OUTPUT_PATH"))
    checkError(err)

    defer stdout.Close()

    writer := bufio.NewWriterSize(stdout, 16 * 1024 * 1024)

    aTemp := strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(readLine(reader)), " ")

    var a []int32

    for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
        aItemTemp, err := strconv.ParseInt(aTemp[i], 10, 64)
        checkError(err)
        aItem := int32(aItemTemp)
        a = append(a, aItem)
    }

    bTemp := strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(readLine(reader)), " ")

    var b []int32

    for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
        bItemTemp, err := strconv.ParseInt(bTemp[i], 10, 64)
        checkError(err)
        bItem := int32(bItemTemp)
        b = append(b, bItem)
    }

    result := compareTriplets(a, b)

    for i, resultItem := range result {
        fmt.Fprintf(writer, "%d", resultItem)

        if i != len(result) - 1 {
            fmt.Fprintf(writer, " ")
        }
    }

    fmt.Fprintf(writer, "\n")

    writer.Flush()
}

    func readLine(reader *bufio.Reader) string {
    str, _, err := reader.ReadLine()
    if err == io.EOF {
        return ""
    }

    return strings.TrimRight(string(str), "\r\n")
    }

func checkError(err error) {
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
}

• First go ahead and delete everything in the pre-existing template.
• Now as usual, create our outer program structure. This is not our final snippet, we will create a much optimized template in coming posts for fast I/O, but for now just go ahead and create a simple structure that we have been using this far.

package main
import "fmt"

func main(){
    
}

If this seems unfamiliar, please refer to my earlier posts. Next thing we need is to take 6 inputs. There are two options :-

• Take six variables
• Use arrays

Lets learn arrays!!!. So now I will declare 2 arrays of length 3 each and take inputs in those arrays.

    var a [3]int
    var b [3]int

This is the syntax for declaring an array in golang. Like variable, type comes later and we provide the length of array in []. Length of an array in golang is fixed. Since both a, b are of same type, we could have clubbed the declaration like we club variable declaration. Now we need to take our inputs, so ahead and add these lines of code.

fmt.Scan(&a[0],&a[1],&a[2])
fmt.Scan(&b[0],&b[1],&b[2])

Nothing unusual, referencing indexes 0,1,2 and taking inputs. Now we need to declare two more variables for storing result of the comparison, loop over the values and compare them.

    var ar,br int
    for i:=0;i<3;i++{
        //compare here
    }

We are looping three times, as that's the length of our arrays. Next we need to add our comparison logic in there and print the result.

        if a[i] > b[i] {
            ar++
        }else if b[i] > a[i] {
            br++
        }
	//after for
	fmt.Println(ar,br)

If-ELSE in Golang

If-else in golang is also similar to for, () not mandatory , {} is must. rest is pretty much self explanatory. Notice the use of else if insted of else, we need to take care of case where a[i]=b[i] no value should be incremented there. That is the reason for using else if instead of just an else.

Now your complete code should look like

package main
import "fmt"

func main(){
    var a [3]int
    var b [3]int
    fmt.Scan(&a[0],&a[1],&a[2])
    fmt.Scan(&b[0],&b[1],&b[2])
    var ar,br int
    for i:=0;i<3;i++{
        //compare here
        if a[i] > b[i] {
            ar++
        }else if b[i] > a[i] {
            br++
        }
    }
    fmt.Println(ar,br)
}

There you go guys, you made it to the end of the blog. Please check out the video below if you still have any doubts, subscribe to my youtube channel for regular updates, subcribe to my mailing list below, follow me on twitter , drop me a mail or leave a comment here if you still have any doubts and I will try my best to help you out. Thanks

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